The present invention relates to computer assisted learning systems in general whether the learner is an adult, a child or otherwise, which may include the case where the learner is a heuristic computer system.
Some computer assisted learning systems structure the activities that a user may engage in according to their difficulty, and the activities are presented to the user, the learner, in that order. In some systems the user may have an entirely free choice of which activity to attempt next. Either way the user may suffer frustration or boredom because he or she will choose activities at random, or be presented activities, which are too easy or too hard and hence which are of no benefit to the user.
It is an object of the invention to provide a system that to some extent guides the user to appropriate activities.
Preferably some choice is left to the user which emphasizes and exercises responsibility and helps to maintain his or her interest.
In a preferred embodiment the system allows the separation of the user interface and the educational content, which facilitates the development educational aspects of a system, lets the user configure the interface to suit him or herself, and allows the same material to be used across a wide range of age and (dis)ability.
The invention makes use of what are termed herein as developmental networks which encode information as to the relative difficulty of the various skills that a user is to attain. As will be described below the skills are not simply arranged into a linear order.
According to the present invention there is provided a computer assisted learning apparatus for operating upon a database comprising at least one developmental network, the network having a plurality of nodes, each representing a developmental skill or an inference concerning such a skill, and links between nodes, each link being between a node for a first skill and a node for a second easier skill, the database further comprising interactive activity modules associated with the nodes,
the apparatus comprising
means for allowing an interactive activity module defined in the database to be selected,
means for presenting a selected activity module defined in the database to the user whether visually, audibly or otherwise,
means for allowing the user to interact with an activity so presented,
means for recording at least some or the user""s actions during or responses to the presented activity, and
means for evaluating at least some of those recorded actions or responses to decide, or provide an inference as to, whether the user has attained a skill associated with a node, and
access prevention means operative in respect of at least a particular node of a network at least for some of the time, for preventing the user from accessing an activity module associated with that particular node according to some criterion based, at least in part, on the results of the said evaluation for at least one activity module associated with at least one other node of the said network.
Further, the present invention also provides a computer assisted learning program for operating upon a database comprising a least one developmental network, the network having a plurality of nodes, each representing a developmental skill or an inference concerning such a skill, and links between nodes, each link being between a node for a first skill and a node for a second easier skill, the database further comprising interactive activity modules associated with the nodes, the program comprising
means for allowing an interactive activity module defined in the database to be chosen by the user,
means for presenting a selected activity module defined in the database to the user whether visually, audibly or otherwise,
means for allowing the user to interact with an activity so presented,
means for recording at least some of the user""s actions during or responses to the presented activity, and
means for evaluating at least some of those recorded actions or responses to decide, or provide an inference as to, whether the user has attained a skill associated with a node, and
access prevention means operative in respect of at least a particular node of a network at least for some of the time, for preventing the user from choosing an activity module associated with that particular node according to some criterion based, at least in part, on the results of the said evaluation for at least one activity module associated with at least one node of the said network.
The said criterion may be based, at least in part, on the results of the said evaluation for at least one activity module associated with at least one node for an easier skill connected to the particular node either by a single said link or by more than one of said links, each of those links being in the direction of a harder skill to an easier skill.
The means for presenting an activity module may be capable of passing to an activity module arguments associated with a particular one of a plurality of nodes associated with that activity module, those arguments defining or adding to a definition of the skill represented by the node.
The apparatus may comprise means for presenting an activity module for one or more items in an electronic encyclopaedia.
The apparatus may comprise means for allowing a user to record an audio track of their own voice, for storing that track in association with a node and for allowing the user to replay that rack.
The means for recording responses may include an on screen keyboard.
The means for evaluating the recorded responses or actions may comprise a means for marking the recorded responses and for providing corresponding marks.
The evaluating means may comprise means for reducing the marks provided by the means for marking to one or more statistics.
The evaluating means and/or the access preventing means may produce or maintain at least one flag or value indicating whether the skill represented by a node has been attained by a user and/or whether the node is accessible to the user. The said at least one flag or value may indicate, from time to time, the following conditions: that the user has not attempted an activity module associated with the node, that the user has attempted an activity module associated with the node but has not attained the skill that the node represents, and that the user has attained the skill that the node represents. The said at least one flag or value may indicate, from time to time, the following condition: that the node is to be accessible to the user despite the user having attempted an activity module associated with the node but has not attained the skill that the node represents. The said at least one flag or value may indicate, from time to time, the following condition: that the node is to be accessible to the user irrespective of whether the user has attempted an associated activity module or has attained the skill that the node represents.
The said access prevention means may be arranged to prevent access to nodes for which the user has attempted an associated activity module but has not attained the skill that the node represents. The said access prevention means may allow, after a period, access to a node for which an associated activity module has been attempted but for which the skill that the node represents has not been attained. The said means or preventing access to nodes may allow access to a node for which the user has attempted an associated activity module but has not attained the skill that the node represents once the user has subsequently attained the skill for an easier node that is connected to that node via a certain number of links, each in the direction of a node for a harder skill to one for an easier skill. That certain number of links may be one. Alternatively the said period may be a predetermined period of time.
The said access prevention means may be arranged not to prevent access to a node merely for the reason that the user has attempted an activity module associated with that node but has no attained the skill that that node represents.
The said means for preventing access may always allow access to a root nose, a root node being a node having no nodes for easier skills linked to it.
The means for preventing access may be arranged not to prevent access to a node elected by a user to be accessible.
The said criterion may be based on which of the routes from a particular node to a root node has a node for which the user has attempted an easier skill but has not attained that skill, the links making up said routes always being in the direction of a harder skill to an easier skill.
The access prevention means may be arranged to prevent access to an activity module associated with a node if on the only such route or any one of such routes there is such a said node.
The access prevention means may be arranged to prevent access to an activity module associated with a node if on the only such route or on all of such routes there such a said node.
The access prevention means may be arranged to prevent access based on fuzzy or inferential logic criteria. That is to say the evaluation of the user""s actions during or responses to an activity module may be more complex than simply saying the user has passed or failed a node.
The apparatus may comprise a search engine for allowing a user to enter one or more keywords and for returning a list of activity modules that are associated with the keywords and that are not prohibited to the user by the preventing means.
The apparatus may comprise means for presenting the activity modules allowed to a user by the preventing means into a hierarchical system of menus for presentation to the user. At least some of the items on at least one of the said menus may be presented graphically.
The apparatus may comprise means for displaying a graphic having a layout corresponding to the interconnection of the network and may allow the user to select among the activity modules associated with that network that are allowed to the user by the access prevention means. The means for displaying a graphic may hide portions of the graphic representing nodes inaccessible to the user.
The apparatus may comprise means for presenting a list of activity modules accessible to the user with the activity modules for nodes in the same network as the or a node associated with the last activity module attempted by the user being presented first.
The apparatus may be arranged to allow the user to select from among encyclopaedia entries allowed to the user by the preventing means.
The system may, however, be arranged to choose activities for the user from those accessible to the user. Preferably the system is arranged to present the available activities in turn cycling between them.
The apparatus may be operable with an activity module for which the evaluation means operates to decide whether the user has attained the skills of at least two different nodes. Those two said nodes may be in the same or different networks.
The apparatus may be arranged to allow navigation between related networks, the representation of said networks including links for that purpose.
The apparatus may be arranged to place restrictions on the user""s navigation between networks based on the results of the said evaluation for nodes of those networks.
The apparatus may be arranged to guide the user, when moving between one network and another linked to it, to a particular node in said latter network, the identity of that node being recorded in the representation of said networks.
The apparatus may be for operating on a network defined by a set of developmental criteria and whose representation records those criteria or the degree or difficulty of individual nodes of the network with respect to those criteria, and the apparatus may comprise selection means for selecting from the nodes in a network allowed to a user by the access prevention means, one or more nodes having a selected degree or degrees of difficulty with respect to the developmental criteria. The said selected degree or degrees of difficulty with respect to a particular developmental criterion may be a certain degree of difficulty and all possible greater degrees of difficulty with respect to that developmental criterion. The said selection means may be arranged to offer the user a choice among a group of nodes selected by the selection means only once the size of that group is below a certain size. If the said group of nodes is above the said certain size the selection means may be arranged to adjust, or allow the user to adjust, the degrees of difficulty used to make the said selection of nodes.
According to the present invention, there is also provided apparatus arranged to generate from a set of developmental criteria relating to aspects of the difficulty of a set of skills a network fox use with computer assisted learning apparatus.